Mato builds a complete podcast from a short description. You describe what you want, Mato drafts a name, cover direction, schedule, and hosts, and you review and adjust each one before the show is created.
To start, open your team workspace and go to Podcasts in the sidebar. Click Create in the top right, or the create button on the empty state if you have no shows yet. The wizard opens full screen, with no sidebar, so you can focus on one step at a time.
Describe your show
Write a few sentences about the topics you want to cover, who listens, and what makes the show different. The description needs at least 10 characters and can run up to 1,000.
Two things can help Mato before it drafts anything:
- Under Start from your website, paste your company URL into the optional Company website field and click Analyze website. Mato scrapes your homepage and up to four subpages, discovers any RSS feeds, and uses what it finds to suggest a concept and match your brand.
- Click Attach reference to add documents (.md, .txt, or .pdf) for extra context on your style or subject matter.
A panel on the right, "What we understood," updates as you type and shows what Mato is picking up from your brief. Click Continue once the brief looks right. Mato drafts your show's profile, which takes 30 to 60 seconds. You can also click Save and exit to keep the brief as a draft without generating anything yet.
Name and identity
When the draft is ready, review and edit the show name, URL slug, description, category, and tone. A cover art draft updates on the right as you change the name and description.
Type a one-line cover direction in the panel's text box (for example, "warm, minimal, orange tones") to steer the artwork before it's generated. Mato saves the direction and confirms with a short note; it draws on it once the show is actually built, so this step does not render new art on the spot.
Open More options to set up intro, outro, and transition audio now, or leave it for later in show settings.
Format and cadence
Choose one host or two, then set episode length, number of segments, tone, and how often new episodes should be made.
- Episode length ranges from 10 to 60 minutes.
- Segments range from 1 to 15, and adjust automatically with the length you pick.
- Tone and an optional call-to-action line shape how the hosts wrap up each episode.
- Schedule sets the release frequency, day, time, and time zone for automatic generation.
Click Continue and Mato starts matching hosts to your show, which takes a similar 30 to 60 seconds.
Choose your hosts
You get a deck of candidate hosts, starting with Mato's own picks already selected. Swipe or click through:
- Keep adds a host to your show, up to the number you chose in the previous step.
- Skip moves to the next candidate.
- Listen plays a short voice sample before you decide.
If none of the candidates fit, click Build your own host to design a custom voice and personality in a separate wizard (see Set up hosts and voices). When you come back, the host you built is added automatically.
Where it goes
This step confirms distribution basics. Your Mato RSS feed is always included and cannot be turned off here. Submitting to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, and website embeds happens later, from the show's Distribution settings, once the show exists.
You can also turn on review checkpoints here, such as a notification when a script is ready, before episodes go any further automatically.
Review
A summary table lists your show name, hosts, format, schedule, category, content sources, and workspace, each with an edit link back to the step that set it. Nothing has been created yet.
Click Looks good to confirm. Mato then builds your show: it drafts the final show profile, matches the hosts, and creates the show itself. A progress screen shows all three steps. You can leave this page at any point; the build continues in the background and your show appears in Podcasts once it's done. If a step fails, you can retry just that step without losing your other answers.
Your show is ready
The final screen offers three places to go next: record your first episode, open the show, or publish the show, alongside a checklist confirming your show profile, hosts, schedule, and content sources are set up.
Nothing reaches listeners yet. Episodes only go out once you publish them, and podcast apps list your show only after you submit it from Distribution.
Everything you chose in the wizard can change later: the name, description and cover in Show identity, where you can also upload your own cover instead of the generated one; the hosts in Hosts and voices; and length and tone in Writing settings.
What to do next
Your podcast is set up, but it does not have content sources yet. Here is the recommended order:
- Set up hosts and voices if you want to fine-tune how your hosts sound.
- Add content sources. Connect RSS feeds so Mato has material to draw from.
- Make your first episode.